Abstract

This specification defines the HyperText Markup Language (HTML), version
4.0, the publishing language of the World Wide Web. In addition to the text,
multimedia, and hyperlink features of the previous versions of HTML, HTML
4.0 supports more multimedia options, scripting languages, style sheets,
better printing facilities, and documents that are more accessible to users
with disabilities. HTML 4.0 also takes great strides towards the
internationalization of documents, with the goal of making the Web truly
World Wide.

HTML 4.0 is an SGML application conforming to International Standard ISO
8879 -- Standard Generalized Markup Language [ISO8879]). As an
SGML application, the syntax of conforming HTML 4.0 documents is defined
by the combination of the SGML declaration and the document type definition
(DTD). This specification defines the intended interpretation of HTML 4.0
elements and adds syntax constraints that may not be expressed by the DTD
alone.